I am really using the term 'CMS' very loosely. See, I started out on this quest for a lightweight 'forum' software that doubled as a great list-server, and pretty soon, I was encountering CMS solutions that did everything under the sun BUT what I needed. It seems as the CMS world has simply absorbed all the little forum/content concepts, hence why I framed my question around CMS.
Here's the scenario: Our company consults to schools and non-profits and provides database-solutions. In my particular situation, the vast majority of my users are of the 'hit-and-run' variety. They need to be 'registered' users of our products, so user-management is a requirement. What these registered users need is a central repository for resources and archives of messages and even a k-base but they want to hop on per-need basis. Typically, they hop on, search the boards or the k-base and if they find an answer, they leave happy. If not, they want to post a message, subscribe to the thread and receive email notification that a reply has been sent. Moreover, they'd want to reply to that thread by email and I would want to integrate those exchanges into the forum as well for archival reasons. Those are the tasks; the question is if there is a good solution out there and a proof of concept (other than WebCrossing)? I like WebCrossing a lot but it isn't open source and aside from the mailing-list integration feature...I see stuff like PostNuke bypassing it in functionality and design. Thanks! -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Adam Gaffin Sent: Monday, December 23, 2002 10:32 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [cms-list] Integrated Mailing List in CMS > > It seems to me, though, that one of the important features of a CMS > would be to allow users to 'subscribe' to bulletin boards via email > and give users the option to send email directly to the > forum/mailing-list as well as to receive emails of posts to such a > 'board'. > > The functionality I am looking for is akin to that of webcrossing > (www.webcrossing.com), or Apple's implementation thereof in their > 'Support>Discussions' forum. > Why would you want to do that through the CMS rather than through the forum software? Use the right tool for the right job and all that. If the issue is avoiding multiple user logins because you have personalization running, WebCrossing supports (with some scripting) external user databases. I suspect other forum packages support similar external user dbs. Now, what might make more sense is a CMS that had a forum module so that you could manage ALL your content in a single place. Reef had that, but they wanted something like $50,000 for it, which seemed quite excessive when you could buy WebCrossing (which had a lot more forum functionality) for, what, $1,000? Adam Gaffin Executive Editor, Network World Fusion [EMAIL PROTECTED] / (508) 490-6433 / http://www.nwfusion.com "I programmed my robotic dog to bite the guy who delivers the electronic mail." -- Kibo -- http://cms-list.org/ trim your replies for good karma. -- http://cms-list.org/ trim your replies for good karma.
